Xenon plasma focussed ion beam preparation of an Al-6XXX alloy sample for atom probe tomography

 

Various atom probe maps

 A team of researchers from Oxford's Research Group in Atom Probe Tomography and the David Cockayne Centre for Microscopy used an Xe plasma Focussed Ion Beam instrument to prepare an in-situ specimen from an aluminium 6XXX alloy, for Atom Probe Tomography.

In their paper 'Xenon plasma focussed ion beam preparation of an Al-6XXX alloy sample for atom probe tomography including analysis of an a-Al(Fe,Mn)Si dispersoid', published in Materials Characterization, the team explains that the nature and distribution of precipitates and solute clusters observed in the alloy did not differ between standard electropolishing methods and Xe plasma preparation.

Enabled by site specific specimen preparation, the researchers were able to perform an analysis of an a-Al(Fe,Mn)Si dispersoid which showed segregation at the phase boundary and in the shell of the dispersoid.